


green

by brightclam



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Healing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 22:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16861669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightclam/pseuds/brightclam
Summary: Raleigh and Mako live happily ever after.(aka healing is hard but it's worth it)





	green

**Author's Note:**

> idk I think I'm projecting my desperate want for healing and domesticity onto characters lol
> 
> tw: vague mentions of violence, slight discussion of past trauma

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He looks at her, the woman who he’d met in the middle of the end of the world. His scars had still itched then, tracing red lines of irritation into his skin. Even when he no longer wears the jaeger suits, they are still burned into him. A reminder of all he had lost and all he had gained. 

 

He’s older now, and the scars are quieter. Mako insists he keep rubbing the cream into his skin to help them fade. He can’t decide whether he likes them there or if he wishes they would magically disappear. He’s indecisive, she insists he take action. In the end, he can’t get them to fade completely no matter how much cream he uses, so maybe it’s a moot point. She helps him rub it into the rough, raised skin, perched on the edge of their bed, as light as a bird.

 

Even now, barefoot on their kitchen floor, she stands as if she’s wearing the weight of a jaeger’s suit. Feet braced, shoulders straight, whole body tense and alive and ready to move. The sun pouring the window reflects off the tips of her hair, freshly dyed green. Green like life, green like the dye the evac pods released after they had won, green like the plants starting to sprout in their window boxes. It had taken some getting some used to, after seeing her blue for so long.

 

He steps into the room, feet cold on the tile, taking in the half healed cut on her cheek. They spar at least every day still, too restless to enjoy a retirement without some sort of war.

 

They’ll have to find a new hobby soon; Raleigh’s knees are starting to go. The doctors starting him on physical therapy next week. Of all the ways he might have expected his life to end, he didn’t think it would be in a happy, easy retirement, waiting for his body to give out completely. He doesn’t dislike it like he would have thought he would. Maybe it has to do with her; he’s felt alone for so long that being with her feels like finally being able to breath. Funnily enough, he knows she feels the same. How wonderful that they found each other; both suffocating, both able to breath life into the other. A perfect match; drift compatible. 

 

She turns to face him, sunlight dancing in her dark eyes and reflecting off the metal of the sink. He reaches a hand out to her, a wordless, unformed request for affection. She sighs happily and lets him cup her face, his thumb curving to fit the line of her jaw. He forgets all his aches and pains as she smiles at him, tilting her head to press further into his hand, her hair brushing his wrist. He leans in to kiss her and she giggles, carefully setting down her mug of tea before letting him in. She wraps him in her arms and he sighs, tension melting away. 

 

She tastes as sweet as she had when he first kissed her on that life raft, copters roaring overhead. Back then they hadn’t been sure it would last; had though maybe it was just the exhilaration of being alive and victorious.

 

They were wrong; he loves her as truly as he had that day, despite the passage of time. He knows he’ll love her the same until the day he takes his last breath. Maybe being in her head so completely had helped their love along, but he doubts it. They’ve had to work for this peace; they’re both war torn and jagged, quick to snap and cut each other on their broken edges. But the love had won out and they had worked on themselves, worked to heal their trauma, worked to make sure that their love was healthy. And it paid off; now he’s here in their little cabin with their chickens clucking in the coop outside and her warm arms wrapped around him.

 

Saving the world was rather meaningless; this is what makes him feel alive. The simple joy of being himself and being loved, and knowing she feels the same way. Like their plants, they’re still growing, but he’s proud of where they’ve gotten to. The only thing more beautiful than their life right now is the thought of all the opportunity in their future. Who knows, maybe he’ll learn how to knit. She’d love a pair of socks, he thinks. Green socks, maybe; green like her, green like him, green like growth, green like their love.

 

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End file.
